Fundamentals of Atmospheric and Climate Dynamics

Catalog description

This course introduces the physical laws that govern Earth's climate. The course begins with planetary energy balance, blackbody radiation, greenhouse warming, optical depth, and climate feedbacks. It then develops the thermodynamics of moist air, including Clausius-Clapeyron scaling, lapse rates, water vapor, and global precipitation constraints. The second half of the course introduces the governing equations of atmospheric motion, shallow-water dynamics, geostrophic balance, gravity waves, Rossby waves, and baroclinic instability. The course concludes by connecting these foundations to extratropical weather systems, atmospheric rivers, and the dynamical response of climate to forcing. Students will develop skill in physical reasoning, scaling analysis, and idealized modeling of the climate system.